In the Greek myth of Pandora’s box, a curious woman opens a box and releases all manner of evil into the World.
Once the box is open, there is no closing it, and only hope is left at the bottom. Is the internet holy or evil?
That question does not really matter. The internet just is. It exists. There is no going back. Even thinking of a time before the Internet sounds already like prehistory.
All we can do is look on in wonder.
The inventors of self-driving automobiles speak glowingly of the machines’ ability to learn and adapt, opining that it far outstrips that of Humans, while victims of online bullying and addiction call the Internet the work of the devil.
No matter how much technology evolves, it is still up to us to steer it in the right direction.
Some people are so damaged they have abandoned civilization and moved into the woods to escape the radiation of microwaves, computers, cell phones, and other commonplace conveniences.
One woman has developed such an acute sensitivity to this radiation that she spent a year lying in a Faraday cage.
Another woman’s illness has prevented her from functioning in everyday Society.
Teenagers at an Internet Recovery Center describe becoming so engulfed in online gaming that reality became unreal to them.
Kids in South Korea who stayed glued to their game screens so long that they developed thrombosis had their legs amputated.
Unlike the radiation victims, these kids have been scarred by abusing the technology rather than just trying to coexist with it.
The most extreme example of online evil involves the grieving family of a mentally disturbed woman who died in a car crash.
A first responder snapped a photo of her nearly decapitated body and e-mailed it to all his friends, turning the family’s tragedy into a meme.
The mother is convinced that the Internet is the work of the Antichrist.
Kevin Mitnick, one of the World‘s most famous hackers says that Humans are the weak link.
When the FBI was after him, he evaded capture by hacking into the bureau’s cell phones.
There will always be security breaches because there is no end to our fallibility.
Nothing we make will ever completely cover up our flaws, but developments like the Internet at least make it possible to dream of being better than we were yesterday.
Elon Musk figures that if we destroy the Earth, there should be a plan B.
In a way his project is both hopeful and fatalistic. It is based on the dual assumptions that we deserve to survive but also need to be rescued from ourselves.
Asked about his dreams, Musk admits that they are mostly nightmares. What he worries about most is not that his machines will fail but that people will use them for evil rather than good.